Brandon Brown (racing driver)

Brandon Lee Brown (born September 14, 1993) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving for several teams including the No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro for Brandonbilt Motorsports.

Brandon Brown
Brown at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2021
Born	Brandon Lee Brown (1993-09-14) September 14, 1993 Woodbridge, Virginia, U.S.
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
150 races run over 7 years
2022 position	17th
Best finish	11th (2020)
First race	2016 Virginia 529 College Savings 250 (Richmond)
Last race	2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Championship Race (Phoenix)
First win	2021 Sparks 300 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 20 0
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career
22 races run over 4 years
2017 position	97th
Best finish	25th (2016)
First race	2014 American Ethanol 200 (Iowa)
Last race	2017 Alpha Energy Solutions 250 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
Statistics current as of November 5, 2022.

Brown inadvertently became associated with politics after winning the 2021 Sparks 300, when NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast's misstating of a crowd chant led to "Let's Go Brandon" becoming a political slogan used against U.S. President Joe Biden.

Racing career

Early career

Brown first started racing when he was ten, driving go-karts at King George Speedway before moving to dirt track racing, winning the 2006 World Karting Association Mid-South Region Jr. championship. Two years later, he won the Jr. Restricted Light and Heavy Division championships, followed by the VDKA Series and Jr. Restricted Light and Heavy Division championships in 2009. In 2010, Brown began competing in the Whelen All-American Series with family-owned Brandonbilt Motorsports, winning a race and eventually the Virginia Rookie of the Year Award. The next year, he won three races at Old Dominion Speedway.

NASCAR

Brown's No. 68 Xfinity car in 2019

In 2014, Brown made his Camping World Truck Series debut at Iowa Speedway, finishing 25th after starting 27th. He made two more starts in the year, with a best finish of 19th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The following year, he attempted eight races but failed to qualify for three. After starting the season with a 29th-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, he ended the year with a best finish of 14th at Dover International Speedway.

In the 2016 season opener at Daytona International Speedway, Brown finished a career-best fourth place. Brown made his Xfinity Series debut at his home track of Richmond International Raceway in September 2016. Brown increased his Xfinity Series schedule in 2017, with intentions of running ten races in addition to select Truck races.

After driving a full-time Xfinity Series schedule in 2019 for 2 teams, Brown drove the No. 68 Chevrolet for Brandonbilt Motorsports the following year. He made his first appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs, finishing 12th in the regular-season standings, but was eliminated following the first round.

In 2021, Brown tied his best career finish with a sixth at Daytona, followed by an eighth-place finish at the Daytona Road Course. He improved on his best finish at Phoenix when he finished third after various leaders were forced into the wall on an overtime restart.

At the Sparks 300 at Talladega in October 2021, Brown was in contention throughout the latter part of the race after escaping the first big wreck that took place on lap 88. As the race started late in the day because of the Truck race that was completed just earlier, there was a chance that the race would be called early if another caution had come out as it was starting to get dark. With a push from behind, Brown, who was not in the playoffs, was able to narrowly get ahead of Brandon Jones and Justin Allgaier in time when the final caution of the race came out with 13 to go due to another big crash. The race was ultimately called with five laps to go due to darkness, and Brown would score his first career Xfinity Series win in his 114th start.

Sponsorships

Coastal Carolina University, Brown’s alma mater, served as a primary sponsor on Brown's truck and Xfinity car during the early part of his career.

When his team was struggling to find sponsorship during the 2021 season, Brown made a Twitter video in June 2021, dressing up as a 'used car salesman' in an attempt to promote his team and find available sponsors for upcoming races. The video paid off as Brandonbilt Motorsports announced they had secured enough sponsorship, including one from American PetroLog, a provider of logistics services for the petrochemical industry, as well as cryptocurrency company TradeTheChain.com, to finish off the rest of the season.

"Let's Go Brandon"

Main article: Let's Go Brandon

After his first win at Talladega, Brown was being interviewed at the start-finish line by NBC Sports reporter Kelli Stavast, when many in the crowd began to chant "Fuck Joe Biden." Stavast stated, "You can hear the chants from the crowd, 'Let's go, Brandon!'" It is unclear whether she legitimately misheard the chant or whether she intentionally misquoted it.

This gave rise to the political slogan "Let's Go Brandon" as a euphemism against Biden. Brown initially responded to the new political slogan with the lighthearted tweet, "To all the other Brandons out there, You're welcome! Let's go us". However, he was privately ambivalent about the phrase, because it overshadowed his Talladega win and threatened to scare off corporate sponsors, who were leery of controversy. His plan originally was to simply ignore the phrase, but as several months passed and it remained in widespread use, he worried that his silence was perceived as a tacit endorsement of the sentiment. Later that month, the Associated Press reported that Brown's Brandonbilt Motorsports team, which is family owned, was struggling to acquire sponsorship as companies were hesitant to support him due to his indirect association with the chant and its political undertones.

In December 2021, he broke his silence on the matter in an interview with The New York Times in which he stated that, though he was a Republican, he wanted "to appeal to everybody" and had "zero desire to be involved in politics". Brown expressed his wishes for the slogan to instead be used in a positive context. He also published an op-ed in Newsweek, in which he took a more mixed stance, stating that he was "not going to endorse anyone", but that he was "not going to hesitate to speak about issues I am passionate about, or the problems we face together as Americans".

For the 2022 Henry 180 at Road America, Brown's No. 68 car promoted the children's book Brandon Spots His Sign by Sheletta Brundidge. The book follows her son Brandon, who has autism, and his interpretation of the phrase as a motivational message for him to try new activities. The Brundidges attended the race as special guests of the team and gave out copies of the book at the track. Brown described the partnership as a "breakthrough moment for us" that proved "this can be positive. This can be good. It doesn't have to be hateful or divisive."

LGBCoin sponsorship

On December 30, 2021, Brown announced that meme coin Let's Go Brandon Coin (LGBCoin) would become his primary sponsor for the full 2022 season. However, the sponsorship was rejected by NASCAR, who added that it had not been approved at the time of Brown's announcement. Brandonbilt Motorsports and LGBCoin's investors disputed NASCAR's statement, citing communications between the team and NASCAR officials, while LGBCoin manager James Koutoulas threatened legal action. Brown eventually signed a two-year personal endorsement deal with LGBCoin.

A January 2022 Change.org petition by LGBCoin claimed Brown's existing sponsors withdrew their funding as the chant grew in popularity before deleting the allegation. 2021 associate sponsors The Mohawk Foundation and Shenandoah Shine answered in the contrary, with the former's founder Ryne Hoover noting a lack of response from Brown following his Talladega win while the latter's Garrett Delph said sponsors had been "forced out" by LGBCoin. Nevertheless, they expressed willingness to resume their support should they reconcile with Brown. Original Larry's Hard Lemonade Brewing Company, who was the team's primary sponsor at Talladega, severed ties as Larry's owner Vic Reynolds voiced his frustration with Brown focusing on a dubious sponsor over committing to those already backing him; Reynolds later clarified he and Brown were still close friends but felt "betrayed" by Brown's actions. On January 13, Brown posted a Twitter statement explaining Brandonbilt had yet to renew sponsorship deals for 2022 during the offseason and that LGBCoin presented a "dream come true offer." He also apologized to his previous sponsors for his silence and maintained his goal to change "Let's Go Brandon" into a positive phrase.

Prior to the 2022 Xfinity season, Brandonbilt Motorsports hired a sales staff to search for sponsorship. Ahead of the first race at Daytona, where merchandise with the phrase was prominently displayed by fans, Brown remarked to the AP that he hoped "they know it's for me and they're pulling for me. [...] Let's go Brandon to get to Victory Lane." In February 2022, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to _targeted solicitation using social media. In April 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida against the LGBcoin cryptocurrency company, Brown, NASCAR, and political commentator Candace Owens alleging that the defendants made false or misleading statements about the LGBcoin and that the founders of the company had engaged in a pump and dump scheme.

Personal life

Brown graduated from Coastal Carolina University in 2018 with a degree in communication; he was also a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. The school served as a primary sponsor on Brown's truck and Xfinity car during the early part of his career.

Brown's father and team owner, Jerry, underwent "aggressive" treatment for cancer after being diagnosed during a routine check-up on April 7, 2020. Brown revealed that his father was cancer-free on August 26.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2016	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy	DAY	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH	TAL	DOV	CLT	POC	MCH	IOW	DAY	KEN	NHA	IND	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR	RCH 29	CHI	KEN	DOV	CLT	KAN 25	TEX	PHO	HOM 23	117th	01
2017		90		DAY	ATL 23	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI	RCH 25	TAL	CLT	DOV 17	POC	MCH 33	IOW	DAY 37	KEN DNQ	NHA	IND	IOW 29	GLN	MOH	BRI 25	ROA	DAR 20	RCH 27	CHI	KEN	DOV 25	CLT	KAN	TEX	PHO	HOM	36th	110
2018		86		DAY 36	ATL	LVS	PHO	CAL	TEX	BRI																										HOM 24	42nd	94
		90									RCH 19	TAL	DOV 28	CLT	POC	MCH	IOW	CHI	DAY	KEN	NHA	IOW	GLN	MOH	BRI	ROA	DAR 18	IND	LVS	RCH	ROV	DOV 22	KAN	TEX 18	PHO
2019		86		DAY 18	ATL 13	LVS 17	PHO 15	CAL 15	TEX 17	BRI 23		TAL 15	DOV 13		POC 13	MCH 26	IOW 31	CHI 22	DAY 6	KEN 17	NHA 16	IOW 27	GLN 18		BRI 12	ROA 37	DAR 33	IND 28	LVS 16	RCH 34		DOV 11	KAN 18	TEX 25	PHO 20		15th	574
	RSS Racing	93	Chevy								RCH 20
	Brandonbilt Motorsports	68	Chevy											CLT 20										MOH 24							ROV 17					HOM 13
2020				DAY 7	LVS 11	CAL 33	PHO 12	DAR 13	CLT 8	BRI 7	ATL 12	HOM 14	HOM 36	TAL 11	POC 33	IRC 11	KEN 27	KEN 13	TEX 10	KAN 11	ROA 12	DRC 34	DOV 14	DOV 16	DAY 26	DAR 17	RCH 18	RCH 11	BRI 12	LVS 15	TAL 9	ROV 26	KAN 13	TEX 5	MAR 18	PHO 12	11th	2170
2021				DAY 6	DRC 8	HOM 34	LVS 11	PHO 3	ATL 33	MAR 27	TAL 7	DAR 24	DOV 10	COA 26	CLT 4	MOH 6	TEX 13	NSH 35	POC 15	ROA 11	ATL 31	NHA 17	GLN 12	IRC 34	MCH 40	DAY 34	DAR 28	RCH 8	BRI 14	LVS 22	TAL 1	ROV 22	TEX 33	KAN 14	MAR 36	PHO 20	16th	620
2022				DAY 10	CAL 11	LVS 29	PHO 13	ATL 18	COA 20	RCH 8	MAR 34	TAL 30	DOV 18	DAR 35	TEX 15	CLT 17	PIR 12	NSH 11	ROA 34	ATL 33	NHA 3	POC 13		MCH 13		DAY 4				TEX 24	TAL 33						17th	538
	Mike Harmon Racing	47	Chevy																				IRC 34
	B. J. McLeod Motorsports	5	Chevy																						GLN 32				BRI 38
		78																									DAR 29					ROV 20	LVS	HOM
	Our Motorsports	02	Chevy																									KAN 17
	SS-Green Light Racing	08	Ford																																MAR 19	PHO 37

Camping World Truck Series

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	NCWTC	Pts	Ref
2014	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy	DAY	MAR	KAN	CLT	DOV	TEX	GTW	KEN	IOW 25	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA 19	LVS	TAL	MAR 24	TEX	PHO	HOM		46th	64
2015				DAY	ATL 29	MAR DNQ	KAN	CLT DNQ	DOV 14	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN 25	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA 27	LVS	TAL	MAR DNQ	TEX	PHO	HOM 32	39th	93
2016				DAY 4	ATL 19	MAR 14	KAN 12	DOV 31	CLT 26	TEX	IOW 24		KEN 20	ELD 22	POC 24	BRI 23	MCH	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL 25	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM	25th	153
	MAKE Motorsports											GTW 32
2017	Martins Motorsports	44	Chevy	DAY DNQ	ATL	MAR 27	KAN																				97th	01
	Brandonbilt Motorsports	86	Chevy					CLT DNQ	DOV	TEX	GTW	IOW	KEN	ELD	POC	MCH	BRI	MSP	CHI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	TEX	PHO	HOM

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

External links

• Official website
• Brandon Brown driver statistics at Racing-Reference